Red Hot Chili Peppers show well executed

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I was a bit perturbed reading your article this morning. Although I can understand the anger of someone who would have experienced the problems listed, from my experience the organisation of the concert got top marks.

Thumbs up to Big Concerts and organisers on the following:

The press release on Friday listing the various forms of transport to the event.

The e-mail that I received from Computicket on Friday spelling out the rules, responding to FAQ and encouraging all to arrive early. To quote "Gates will open at 17:00 and the show will start on time. As the transport and entry systems will be pressured with this very large crowd, fans are strongly encouraged to allow enough transport and entry time so as not to miss any of the show."

We were a group of 3 and opted for the Park and Ride from Northgate, so big thumbs up to the staff routing the traffic and managing admission on the busses. The sticker initiative was cool. Colour coded according to your destination with a name and number in case you screwed up after the event. We easily found our bus after the event so I cannot comment if there actually was a person manning this number, but I held naive comfort in knowing that they actually thought about it. From parking our car to disembarking the bus at FNB stadium was less than 40 minutes – the return trip was even faster. Going forward Park and Ride is our only choice.

Grateful that I was not on the bus that broke down on the N1 south just after Beyers Naude off-ramp – hope those guys didn’t have to wait in the sun for too long.

As we arrived early (just after 4pm), we chose to hang out at the auditorium drinking area which had a nice relaxed vibe about it. Queuing for drinks took less than 5 minutes – I often have to wait longer for my husband to pour me a drink.

At about 5:30 we moved on toward the stadium, using gate 14 – no fuss. Using ramp S to get to level 5 – absolutely no fuss.

With a reasonable choice of calorie killer food to keep you busy between acts, even the vegetarian in the group was catered for.

The ablutions were "reasonably" clean for such an event and could be found close to each block. Perhaps signage to the toilets can be improved on – it was well blended into the architecture, but once you know that the large green female on the wall is the ladies toilet – they seem to appear all over the place.

Working in an industry that takes safety as a core value, I did not see anything that was a concern for me regarding the facilities or the crowd control. Departing from level 5 to the stadium gate it took us about 10 minutes. I can deduce that our area and routes were well catered for, perhaps the lower levels and floor area need some attention from the organisers.

Thumbs down:

Although this is a non-smoking arena – the stadium had their fair share of "smoke machines" at the concert – both of the legal and illegal type. I don’t know who to address on that point.

Having attended various and numerous events with large crowds over the years – the RHCP concert from my experience was well executed.

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